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@lagrangeinterpolator can you understand without generalizing? arguably yes. can you generalize without understanding? also, arguably yes. how else can a mathematical theory of physics give “right answers” in novel physical circumstances?

you could say, I suppose, that it’s the humans doing the calculations that are doing the generalization but one can do the calculations without understanding them.

@BigMuffN69 Thomas Metzinger (“Being No-One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity”, 2004) also argues representational capacity is required for consciousness, but in a much more principled manner and with many examples, at length. I notice they don’t reference that book, or indeed any book that’s younger than 75 years old. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@Amoeba_Girl even better news, it requires no references outside of 90- and 75-year-old results in theoretical computer science! nobody since Rice has made any progress on this important problem.